Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone ! !

First of all my apologies for my bad english. (i think you will get the point)

I decide to start a new topic about the drop rate of precursors and how fair is or isnt.

I had some discussion with support team about 1-2 months ago and the answer was “its all about luck” and they told me to start a topic to see if others players have same issue or its only me.

At this point i wanna tell you that i know a lot of guys who got 4-5 precursors(each) from world event and foes loot.

Now about me….

AGE : 782 DAYS
HOURS : 5642 (with zero afk)
WORLD EVENTS : THOUSANDS
FOES KILL : MILLIONS
PRECURSORS : 0

Maybe game developers think thats fair , well i respect that , but doesnt mean that i must agree.

So if you have the same issue with me , please post with some infos like i do or just post +1 if u agree ! ! !

thank you all ! !

What part of RNG do you not understand?

Age: 716 days
Hours: 5005

Like you tons of world events. I’m running around with 200% MF and starting to wonder if MF has much, if any influence when it comes to loot drops (not including chests, champ boxes & bags).
Rare items are aptly named as they are truly rare. Most drops seems to consist of whites, blue & some greens plus a multitude of dust.
I had not witnessed any precursors drop until a couple of months ago when some players picked them up in Frostgorge Sound during an event that was being farmed at the time.
Yet to pick up a precursor from a mob or event. Of course I also know the chance of this happening is extremely low.
Would go as far as to say, the chances of getting one through the mystic forge are probably a lot higher than a random drop. Having had a couple from the forge.

Doubt things will change in this regard. Although I understand the frustration as I am sure many others do.

Deli.1302:

What part of RNG do you not understand?

And who told you that i dont understand it ? Probably you dont understand ! ! !

I am just saying that i dont like it and its totaly unfair ! ! ! …… now you understand it?

Try not only to read what i am saying but understand what i am trying to say also.

John Smith, the game economist, just started a thread about RNG as a concet in general, maybe you want to have a look over there:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/RNG-as-a-concept-Discuss/first

<Got a precursor drop last month.

<Didn’t pay a copper for my legendary precursor because it was forged in the MF.

RNG: Working as intended.

Arikyali.5804:

<Got a precursor drop last month.

<Didn’t pay a copper for my legendary precursor because it was forged in the MF.

RNG: Working as intended.

For you.

11 characters, playing daily since release, never saw a precursor drop nor do I know anyone who’d gotten one by drop. That’s probability. Do I think it’s fair? I don’t know, I don’t really care about legendaries so even if I’ve gotten precursor I’d immediately sell it.

No, it’s not what you wanted to hear, but the system works. It’s based on extremely low probability meaning you might never get one while someone else can get 3. Tough luck.

A friend of mine got a precursor for the girly shortbow 3 days after he hit 80 in the first month of the game.

I got my first precursor in this WvW season and it was for a useless underwater weapon.

We have been playing since the beta.

kitten-level RNG.

Charleston Chew.1209:

11 characters, playing daily since release, never saw a precursor drop nor do I know anyone who’d gotten one by drop. That’s probability. Do I think it’s fair? I don’t know, I don’t really care about legendaries so even if I’ve gotten precursor I’d immediately sell it.

No, it’s not what you wanted to hear, but the system works. It’s based on extremely low probability meaning you might never get one while someone else can get 3. Tough luck.

So because you don’t care about legendary weapons and you’ve never gotten a precursor as a drop, the system works.

Well that makes all kinds of sense.

I crafted The Bifrost and Kraitkin, dropped Venom and bought The Legend, it’s all about RNG. Though I’m not even attempting anymore unless I get precursor beforehand, the feeling of waiting on precursor to finish a legendary is a huge letdown.

Legendary should be something that shows you’re a veteran player, to show your achievement in the game and so on… and from that perspective it’s totally stupid that precursor and later legendary should be achieved only with how lucky you are. In my opinion there should be something else that gives you precursor and the way to legendary.

Something like :
1) Need to be 80 lvl to get precursor
2) Need to have number of hours to get precursor
3) Need to have over 10k or more AP to get precursor
4) Need to have some kind of achievement to get precursort

Any probably more things to have. That will make hard work and achievement for your hard work and not just luck.

Someone suggested having them to be bought by 200laurels, as it’s a top end-game stuff it seems fair (though I myself don’t have nearly that many laurels).

X amount of laureals (ex 800) is fair for a precursor considering the amount of time u need to spend to finish the legendary after u have the precursor.

800 Laureals means actually playing the game and getting daily/monthly done…it’s not luck based it’s time spent ingame and dedication based..why even try to invent a new system for that? Why invent some obscure quests? why invent some obscure achievement reward track like collections…why make people craft them which means grinding like a slave the mats…mats u also need for the rest of the legendary and already have ridiculous costs. They literally had every system they needed ingame to fix this and they didn’t.

Not to mention laureals can be done literally by anyone in this game (pvp/pve/wvw) by playing. That means u won’t see pve players QQing they have to do pvp/wvw quests (something they hate) in order to get what they want..they just play the game-mod they enjoy and eventually are rewarded for that WITHOUT being forced into content they don’t care about. That works the other way around for PvP players and WvW players.

But as with most good ideas ANet will come up with an excuse or postpone it just to come out with their own vision which in the end is a fail. Nothing ANet says is credible anymore.

1 year = 120 monthly + 12 months * ~30 dailies done in a month WITHOUT achievement chests = 480 laureals
2 years = 960 laureals which could be used either to get 1 precursor OR to get recipes for ascended gear and so on.

EDIT: kolimpi pointed out that i made a mistaking calculating the number of laureals u get/year. The number doesn’t matter i put in another number..but that can be changed to accommodate the system at any time. I put roughly 800 laureals because i considered players might skip 1-2 days of constant play lol.

They could say “that would mean everyone would eventually have a precursor, and therefore a legendary, that shouldn’t be in numbers, it’s supposed to be rare”. Sad to spoil that but it’s already too late, I see glowing lights everywhere.

So what if everyone has a precursor?
If people spend 2 years in a game playing it the way they like it and getting all the laureals on a daily basis why shouldn’t they be offered that a reward? Not to mention it’s just 1 precursor..out of how many 21? I honestly do not understand that mentality.

U NEED 2 YEARS daily play to get the necessary amount of laureals and get a GUARANTEED chance at choosing 1 out of 21 legendaries ingame …and that would be their excuse?

1…..out of 21! EACH 2 YEARS if u play DAILY! guaranteed. And besides that have the existing methods of getting precursors (which are nonexistent for normal players) still be ingame. This way people even if they don’t get the drop they want will think “it’s ok..if i just play the game like i want i am guaranteed to eventually get 1 skin i like”.

They keep players happy knowing they will get 1 guaranteed eventually, they keep players playing and they don’t have to waste valuable resources on inventing something that will 100% guarantee u it will be stupid. + they use a system players are already used too and know! Not to mention Laureals can NOT be trade so it’s 100% your work!

That is exactly the problem why they fail so badly at this. They want precursors to be rare instead of being a reward for player time and dedication put into their game (or both).

Actually..i dare any of u devs that open topics about “how can we communicate better with u and hold hands and share stories and stuffz *hearts*triple rainbows*” to come here and give me the reasons why u would NOT make something like this? Because i am sure u thought of this. I don’t see the bad signes..u win time&money that could have potentially been wasted on this + u give players a guaranteed reward for 2 years of daily play, using a system that already is ingame, and they know but also doesn’t require them to do stuff they don’t like in order to achiev. How much time does it take to code a copy-paste vendor tab that has all legendaries in it set at 800 laureals as a price? 10-15 minutes while taking a d**p in the toilet?

Please..i am prepared to have my mind blown by your reasons/excuses.

EDIT: kolimpi pointed out that i made a mistaking calculating the number of laureals u get/year. The number doesn’t matter i put in another number..but that can be changed to accommodate the system at any time. I put roughly 800 laureals because i considered players might skip 1-2 days of constant play lol.

I agree on that. 200 laurels for precursor and that’s it !

@Rebound, I haven’t thought about that and it does make sense… 2 years for ONE precursor, feels much more of a reward than a cake-pooping glowy cannon toy. :X

Similar experience here. Six level 80 characters with map completion on three of them, and have spent many hours playing (and enjoying) this game. I’ve not had a precursor drop. My opinion is that if they must be RNG (and not earned through skilled gameplay) then they should be renamed to “Lucky Weapons”. There’s really nothing legendary or skillful about getting a lucky drop.

You can get 200 laurels in 5 months only by doing dailies and monthlies. Not counting achievement chests.
The current system is not fair since it’s random, therefore it cannot be fair. But you cannot deny that it is working because everybody can get their legendaries crafted.

You say a guaranteed precursor for playing for 2 years? If you do your dailies, monthlies, run a few dungeons every now and again, do some wvw, you can get everything you need for a legendary within those 2 years. Guaranteed.

What is the connection between precursors and sclerite skins?

kolompi.1287:

What is the connection between precursors and sclerite skins?

Sorry, mis-reply. lol

@Kolompi u are correct i calculated wrong..u get 480 laureals/year theoretically or close to that number…but that is looking selectively at what i said.

Cool…make it 800 laureals is that better now? I edited my post above with the correction. Sry about that.

kolompi.1287:

The current system is not fair since it’s random, therefore it cannot be fair.

Actually, random is completely fair. Every single person has the exact same chance, making it the definition of fair.

People don’t like fair though. They say they do, but what they really mean when they say that is “I want a system whereby I get what I want and other people do not”.

Do i qualify also? 3250g into forge in rares/exotics + 4000 hours of playing while made 4 leges and tons of expensive skins, not a single precursor drop/from forge.

Rebound.3409:

@Kolompi u are correct i calculated wrong..u get 480 laureals/year theoretically or close to that number…but that is looking selectively at what i said.

Cool…make it 800 laureals is that better now?

But why? You can get that legendary done – without farming insanely – with the system we have now. Most people here wrote they played 5000 hours some even with zero afk. It’s really hard not to accumulate enough gold for any precursor in that time. So the system right now is working, it’s just not fair (not when someone throws 4 rare swords into the forge and gets zap on first try).

mtpelion.4562:

kolompi.1287:

The current system is not fair since it’s random, therefore it cannot be fair.

Actually, random is completely fair. Every single person has the exact same chance, making it the definition of fair.

People don’t like fair though. They say they do, but what they really mean when they say that is “I want a system whereby I get what I want and other people do not”.

You’re right about everybody having the same chance and that being fair. I meant that it’s not fair if someone gets 1-2 precursors in a day while others get nothing in 5000 hours. But then again, it’s a gamble, use it at your own risk.

Deli.1302:

What part of RNG do you not understand?

The part that’s based on code that seems to favour some accounts over others, where there’s external factors to the RNG concept.

So, not to be rude but stating that RNG in GW2 is RNG implies you have no real gasp of how said RNG is managed. Because I don’t but I know enough to not simply run around saying RNG is RNG in this game.

@kolompi if the chances are so high to get one, why are people massively complaining about getting them? Or why are u even complaining about something guaranteed as long as it doesn’t effect u? Loreals are things collected over time by playing normally not dedicate hours of repetitive dungeon farming like a slave or massive RNG luck, that on the long run doesn’t effect u in any way because it’s account bound.

Personally i have 9 characters, that i actively change between. I had to dress them the way i liked them, i had to change their sets several times because of balance patches and stats+builds and don’t forget about sigils and all that. I also can’t play daily more then 4-5h considering i have a job, and in that time i want to have fun doing all kinds of stuff, not just farm a few things for gold. I also help guildies with random stuff they need which also takes time away from grinding.

Is that what this game has turned into? a grind competition that determines the most active/loyal player just by how much he grinds or exploits a few spots instead of the enjoying the whole game?

The best answer to your question is “why not?”. As i said..if it’s something that u can personally do, why come here and deny everyone else the chance at a system that does not effect u or your progress in any way. It’s all down to guaranteeing a player gets X if he actively plays the way he wants for a set amount of time. What do u have to lose if they indeed put in this system? what negative parts to this systems do u see or u think might effect your time ingame? It’s not like player X gets it faster then player Y…both X and Y need to play the same amount of time or do the exact same things in order to get it. Nobody has an advantage over another player. Everyone can win for 2 years of their lifes in a game. Think about it.

Yes, the way RNG is implemented is one of the things that truly sucks about this game. Sure the mediocre story telling and the “play our way – not the way you like!” implementation get the most press, but RNG will be thing that will continually annoy me until it pushes me off to a different game.

SoPP.7034:

Deli.1302:

What part of RNG do you not understand?

The part that’s based on code that seems to favour some accounts over others, where there’s external factors to the RNG concept.

So, not to be rude but stating that RNG in GW2 is RNG implies you have no real gasp of how said RNG is managed. Because I don’t but I know enough to not simply run around saying RNG is RNG in this game.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/I-have-a-question-about-the-economy/page/15#post4487484

The whole system is completely BS! There should have been NEVER a market for Precursors. Instead they should be a long term goal that rewards you with an account bound precursor. This could be implemented with a background story and fits perfectly with the scavenger hunt that was told to be in the game about 2 years ago. Also why the kitten are Legendaries even tradable?

The system is broken, and it is be cause to make $$$. There are a lot of players that pay for all the mats and precursors for their legendaries.

@Rebound: Like i wrote before you can get that legendary without grinding. Now if you actively avoid doing things that give you gold in return then that’s a different scenario. But people who played 5000 hours in 2 years cannot claim they are not able to get their legendary.

You can actually get enough money way faster than 2 years even without said grind.

ProtoGunner.4953:

There are a lot of players that pay for all the mats and precursors for their legendaries.

Yeah…. no.

ProtoGunner.4953:

The whole system is completely BS! There should have been NEVER a market for Precursors. Instead they should be a long term goal that rewards you with an account bound precursor. This could be implemented with a background story and fits perfectly with the scavenger hunt that was told to be in the game about 2 years ago. Also why the kitten are Legendaries even tradable?

The system is broken, and it is be cause to make $$$. There are a lot of players that pay for all the mats and precursors for their legendaries.

Because legendaries are one of the driving force of the economy and a massive goldsink.

kolompi.1287:

@Rebound: Like i wrote before you can get that legendary without grinding. Now if you actively avoid doing things that give you gold in return then that’s a different scenario. But people who played 5000 hours in 2 years cannot claim they are not able to get their legendary.

You can actually get enough money way faster than 2 years even without said grind.

Well, that’s correct. I got The Bifrost by playing normally and grinding gold to buy the precursor, but it wasn’t pleasant at all since I like itemization, and the acquisition feels crappy.

kolompi.1287:

@Rebound: Like i wrote before you can get that legendary without grinding. Now if you actively avoid doing things that give you gold in return then that’s a different scenario. But people who played 5000 hours in 2 years cannot claim they are not able to get their legendary.

You can actually get enough money way faster than 2 years even without said grind.

List what people need to do, how much they need to do and for how long they need to do it. I am sure the majority of players are interested.

U have the normal playtime of 4-5h/day. List everything u can do in 4-5h, the amount of time u need to spend in each activity, and the amount of gold u get /day from that event. START! Teach us all your ways.

PS. Spark costs 1300g or so to which u add the extra gold for the mats u might miss because u might not have everything u need + 100g icy lodestones, which could get u to 1600-1800g….2000g if u have nothing but that rarely happens.

U didn’t tell me why a laureal system is not good yet…u just tell me there are other ways but not why the laureal isn’t a good way. U keep to your own.

Valento.9852:

kolompi.1287:

@Rebound: Like i wrote before you can get that legendary without grinding. Now if you actively avoid doing things that give you gold in return then that’s a different scenario. But people who played 5000 hours in 2 years cannot claim they are not able to get their legendary.

You can actually get enough money way faster than 2 years even without said grind.

Well, that’s correct. I got The Bifrost by playing normally and grinding gold to buy the precursor, but it wasn’t pleasant at all since I like itemization, and the acquisition feels crappy.

There is also a big difference in how you accumulate that gold. If you do dungeons because you feel like “i want to buy the legend so i have to farm” then you probably won’t enjoy making it.

On the other hand you could just go do things with guildies, friends, stab people in wvw, whatever you fancy doing then some day realize you are actually able to craft a legendary without much effort.

@Rebound: Ok, here’s what i did (i’ve crafted 4 legendaries so far, Twilight was sold because i don’t like the legendary gs skins)

Do the dailies, 5 events (usually world bosses that are active when i log on)
Do a daily fractals with the guild. Mostly between 21-50 depending on which guildies can join.
Do a dungeon or two also if there are guildies who are interested. I’ve stopped pugging a long time ago, it’s just not fun.
If noone wants to do dungeons, i do pvp because i actually enjoy it. Note that pvp isn’t known for the insane amount of gold you get for it.

I have a max. material storage stack size of 500 so every time i reach that, i upgrade t5 to t6 (might not be the best financially but i don’t care).
Salvage rares, sometimes do the orrian temple events. I tend to forget these.

age 782 days
0 precursor drop
Thankfully, I’m not all that upset that I don’t have one.

In addition to the RNG, I feel they should give you the precursor of your choice on your account birthday. That would also require them to add at least 1 legendary a year for those lucky/rich enough to already have all of them. Everyone wins.

- Dailies u do by default, making random stuff (that’s why i said a laureal system is good).
- Fractals i absolutely hate they are repetitive, borring, and if u want to do it with the extra boss JUST THE FRACTALS take away several hours…because u don’t always have a good group or guildies don’t want to do it because they suck as a design.
====
You already finished the ~4h time limit someone NORMAL can invest. If u don’t believe me, go do exactly what u told me, and look at the time it takes.

- both dungeons and fractals done repetitively fall under the grinding area….specially if u only have as i said 4-5 a day to play AND THAT not always…. or maybe weekends i want to do something else.

- you forgot world bosses those are interesting but with the new system u need to be on time at each AND be there at random kitten hours that could span 6h to cover all of them and even then not getting good loot all the time.
- keep in mind some people like to salvage items in order to get their MF up. U would deny them a mechanic of the game just to grind gold? Or maybe some want to work on their ascended gear which means using mats that could be sold at the TP.

Look…….i am NOT saying u are wrong ok? I am saying there needs to be a system that guarantees u a PRECURSOR item, for a big amount of time spent ingame, doing RANDOM STUFF not just a few things, and that doesn’t effect your economy, or pleasure in a game by making it a grindfest and making u not play the game more and more to the point u don’t care anymore. That is REWARDING time played in a game, playing it however you want and not being bowed by 2-3 things in the game, doing them over and over and over and over again for almost an year.

====
As you said…if u actually do it that way YOUR REWARD is getting MULTIPLE (if u are lucky) legendaries + the laureal legendary..and that’s OK with anyone i don’t think anyone will say that’s a bad thing.

If you do it normal hours 4-5h a day and ENJOYING the game however you wish, u get 1 guaranteed precursor for which u have to farm the mats anyway.

Practically the more time u spend ingame = the more guaranteed legendaries u get. If u spend normal playtime ingame u are guaranteed that in 2 years if u play daily u will eventually get 1 legendary. Does this effect you in a bad way? I think not quite the contrary because even u get one. Does this effect the normal player? OBVIOUSLY yes because he gets to experience the game however he wants without being limited to a few things just to get what he wants and still get rewarded at the end and feel good about himself.

In the mean time, people who play even more or like to grind or WHATEVER, they will be rewarded EVEN MORE! by having higher chances at precursors from other activities.

One of the issues if that even if acc birthday rewards with acc-bound precursor it’ll affect economy in the sense you won’t be willing to buy off TP.

You said 4-5 hours, five events take 20 minutes max. A fractals run takes 1 hour. Everything else fits into the 2.5-3 hours, right?

One of the issues with birthday precursor is that you will get that for accounts that have not been played in months. Should that really happen?

“I am saying there needs to be a system that guarantees u a PRECURSOR item”
I’m saying there is such a system now, play the game (not grind), accumulate gold, buy off the trading post.

kolompi.1287:

One of the issues with birthday precursor is that you will get that for accounts that have not been played in months. Should that really happen?

what is wrong with that? Say someone hasn’t played in months, now they get a precursor of their choice on their birthday, they still have to go out and get all the mats and stuff to create their legendary. More likely, it would entice them to play more.
Edit: okay not play “more”, but play again.

Lynne.8416:

kolompi.1287:

One of the issues with birthday precursor is that you will get that for accounts that have not been played in months. Should that really happen?

what is wrong with that? Say someone hasn’t played in months, now they get a precursor of their choice on their birthday, they still have to go out and get all the mats and stuff to create their legendary. More likely, it would entice them to play more.

The huge influx of precursors will cause T6 materials to jump in price. Not just a little jump either, we’re talking 10g+ PER T6 material.

There are only enough T6 on the market to make 20 legendaries. If 1,000 precursors get added today because 1,000 accounts have a birthday, the supply of T6 will be GONE instantly.

I dunno how pro your fractal group is but for the people i play with a fractals run that includes the last boss takes 3h and everything there is effected by RNG. I am left with 1-2h to do something (-30 min daily). That’s either helping a guildie with stuff he needs/quests etc OR play wvw and in some cases dungeon…i change between them so it doesn’t feel like a grind. In 1-2h of wvw u don’t really get much..specially if there are no fights. EoTM depends on the luck u have with the servers u are paired with. If the other 2 servers are bad and u are in the same team..the whole week is a waste.

No there is no a system that doesn’t force u to grind …and yes it IS called grinding, as long as all the content u have to do for almost an year is fractals/dungeons mostly.

Look we are not seeing eye to eye here…we see the game through different eyes. Let’s just leave the discussion as is. All i know, this topic has been an active and masively asked for feature by i consider 10x more people, compared to the people who don’t want it…and it will not go away. The laureal system is a system that fixes this with 0 investment and it rewards players for doing WHATEVER they want and doesn’t bound them to specific “office-tasks” like a daily job simulator, over a timeframe that makes them invest quite a bit in the game without making it feel like slavery.

I don’t come back from my IRL work just to get back into virtual office and do repetitive stuff….and i don’t think the number of people who like doing that is high.

Buy precursor like i did….but materials for precursor are killing me…1000g prec plus 1400 for materials with 6-7h of daily farming would take me 3 months to farm the gold or materials to make it.

Precursors must retain their low drop or forge rate but materials need to be cheaper.

Since the day I did sit on a toilet and got Leaf of Kudzu from it, I felt like a true King.